


A marvellous time

by Mendelynn



Category: Original Work
Genre: About a Teddybear, Christmas, It's a Christmas story, Merry Christmas!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2019-12-24
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:27:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21935974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mendelynn/pseuds/Mendelynn
Summary: Bodo feels lonely. Liza doesn't seem interested in him anymore. But maybe everything will change... because it's Christmas.





	A marvellous time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [everyone](https://archiveofourown.org/users/everyone/gifts).



> Hiya!  
> I have this annual tradition that I write a Christmas story every year. Some are better than others, this years is... in the middle I guess. But it's the first one I translated into English, so I wanted to share it with you.  
> Merry Christmas to all of you! I hope you have a wonderful time with friends and family and find your way into 2020 safely.
> 
> Have fun! *lights a Christmas candle*

Maybe Liza didn’t like him anymore. She didn’t smile at him when she entered the room and he wasn’t allowed to sleep in her bed like he used to. Before, she had always told him about what had happened every day but the stories got shorter, she didn’t hold him as long. Eventually, she stopped completely. And then she had taken him out of her bed. Now, he sat on top of the wardrobe and she even didn’t spare a glance in his direction. Why did he think it might change now? Maybe because Christmas was close.

Especially at Christmas, they had always cuddled and she had told him excitedly about what she wanted Father Christmas to bring her. He had always listened attentively and enjoyed her excitement. But she hadn’t done that last year. He had no idea what she had written on her Christmas list either. Before, she had always read it to him. Maybe she didn’t do it this year because she had wished for a new, prettier teddy bear. He was growing old, his fur wasn’t as fluffy, it was dull and stuck to his body, his eyes didn’t sparkle like they used to. Maybe it was because of his left ear which was coming off, maybe it was because of the rip in his shoulder from which the filling oozed out. Liza aged too but it had had a different effect. She had grown taller, her hair was much longer, and sometimes she stole her mother’s lipstick to paint her mouth. Anyway, she seemed much more interested in her reflection in the mirror than in him. Maybe it was because of that. Maybe Liza was too old to play with her old, well-loved teddy bear.

That was what he thought because there wasn’t much else he could do except think. He was lonely up there. He used to have many friends who lived with him in Liza’s bed. Gina Giraffe had been great at keeping track of thing and Croc the crocodile had always thought of some funny comment. But Bodo the plushy bear had always been Liza’s favourite. The others didn’t mind living at the end of her bed while he was allowed to cuddle Liza every night. But they had disappeared one by one until only Bodo had been left and he was moved to the top of the wardrobe. He missed his friends and he missed Liza even more but he was a good teddy bear. He sat patiently in his place and smiled and slowly got covered in dust.

One afternoon, about two weeks before Christmas, Liza’s face suddenly appeared right in front of him. She had climbed on top of a chair and smiled at him. Did she change her mind and he was allowed to move back into her bed? Maybe he would get his own Christmas miracle. Everything was possible at Christmas time. She took him to her parent’s bedroom; a room he had only seen from the inside very few times and only at night when Liza hadn’t been able to sleep or had had a nightmare. There was a sewing box and Liza’s mother helped her to fix his ear and repair the seam on his shoulder. It felt good to be whole again and Bodo smiled at Liza excitedly. Not much later, he found himself in a round room together with lots of different fabrics. It was dark and crammed and whoever Bodo asked, table cloths and jumpers weren’t the most talkative folks. Then, everything got wet and the room began to spin until he was dizzy. But it stopped eventually and Liza’s mother freed him together with all the other fabrics. She hung him up with a peg on his good ear and he dangled and dripped and had lots of time to think about what was happening to him. Liza had repaired him and she had washed him. His fur had gained some of its old shine again even though it still stuck to his body. Did she want to make him pretty for Christmas? She had never made him pretty before, she had loved him just the way he was. And then she had forgotten about him. Maybe she had remembered and wanted to make him look as nice as he used to a long time ago when Liza had been hardly bigger than him? When he had dried, she brushed his fur until it was fluffy again, at least a bit, and examined him proudly. “You are a great teddy, Bodo,” she said and Bodo smiled. He was happy she was pleased with him. Liza put a tag around his neck. “They have to know what you’re called. I don’t want them to give you a wrong name,” she explained but Bodo didn’t understand. Afterwards, she placed him in a box carefully and closed the lid. There was some rustling and crackling, the box was turned a few times and then it stopped. It grew quiet. And cold. Next to Bodo, there was a chocolate bar, a box of pencils, a pair of socks, a few stars and Christmas balls… very silent flatmates. Bodo started to get bored. There was nothing to see, Liza was gone and he couldn’t do anything except lie and smile and wait.

Until something happened. The box was lifted and carried away. It swayed for a bit but then it stopped and it was placed somewhere else; in a different place. It smelled differently and it wasn’t as cold. Bodo tried to keep track of the days but lost count very quickly. He lay and smiled and waited. Was this his new homestead? Maybe he shouldn’t have been as ungrateful; on top of the wardrobe, he had at least been able to see things. He had watched Liza and the birds that flew past the window sometimes. In here, there was nothing to see, it was dark cool and he had to lay on his back the whole time. It started to be uncomfortable.

For him, it felt like a small eternity but eventually, the box moved again. It was lifted and carried to a different place where it was warmer. There was music from afar, Bodo heard voices that sounded differently than the ones of Liza and her parents. It was nicer, maybe he could stay here? At least there was something to listen to.

The voices vanished but they came back, more of them. There were children’s voices among them but none of them was Liza’s. Bodo lay and waited and smiled. They sang a song he didn’t know. Then, his box was lifted, he heard the excited voice of a child, there was a bit of rustling again and finally, the lid was opened. Bodo looked at a child’s face but it was completely different than Liza’s. It belonged a boy with dark skin and dark hair whom Bodo had never seen before. But his dark eyes gleamed with happiness when he took him out of the box. “His name is Bodo,” his mother explained and pointed at the tag around Bodo’s neck, “He’s yours now. Merry Christmas, Said.”

The boy called Said marvelled at him happily with a look on his face that Bodo knew from Liza when she had been much younger. He didn’t seem to mind the scar on Bodo’s shoulder or that his ear was askew. And then he hugged Bodo so tightly that the seam on his shoulder nearly popped open again. “You’re my teddy now, Bodo,” Said said, “I love you very much.” Then, Bodo was handed to a smaller girl and another boy and they all looked so happy. Bodo had a satisfied smile on his face; he enjoyed the cuddling he had missed so much at Liza’s place. Maybe she was too old to love a teddy bear but these kids did, as much as she had once. He wanted to stay here and spent lots of Christmases with them because Christmas was Bodo’s favourite time of the year. There was always something to marvel at. And this time, it wasn’t him marvelling at Liza’s new iPhone but it was him who caught the marvelling glances of big, dark children’s eyes in which the magic of Christmas sparkled.


End file.
